Picture it: the Norfolk coast 1967, sitting round a fire on the beach at dusk, warm sand beneath your feet. The ebb and flow of the tide, restless mixed feelings at the end of the season. It’s the happy/sad feeling The Beach Boys did so well, honed to perfection by The Avalanches…
Originally this track was made very quickly to a tight deadline for work. The brief was to create a laid-back soundtrack to relax students and induce a creative atmosphere, and this sparse little folk number emerged with a beach theme. It consisted of Apple Loops layered together in GarageBand, but I always felt something was missing and decided to add some depth, spicing up the sixties flavour. There’s even a few bars of Sgt. Pepper’s-style backwards tape for the sake of pure nostalgia. Goldfrapp did retro psychedelics so well on Seventh Tree, so I guess you could say I was under the influence!
Since I Left You, the iconic album by The Avalanches is about to get the ‘Deluxe Reissue’ treatment this year, setting the stage for the release of the mythical second Avalanches album which is rumoured to drop in 2012. This is my compilation of the very best bits of the many Avalanches DJ sets which have emerged over the years. I’ve gone for all the ‘up’ stuff and cut most of the shouty rap. Continue reading →
This is my shrine to Goldfrapp, videos I’ve made, mashups I’ve mashed and the odd remix. Enjoy!
My latest remix is Drew – Clockwork Mix, using just the vocal from the original and building a cinematic soundscape from ghostly whispers, ticking clocks and a huge orchestra.
This is one of the stand out tracks from Goldfrapp’s Tales of Us album, remixed by me, rocking the tribal flavour and adding a few angry mobs here and there. Sit back and grab a burning torch – it’s Thea, the Totem mix!
Nobody remixed Cologne Cerrone Houdini. So it was left to me to knock together a stoned sort of edit, using extracts from the track mixed into the instrumental with added samples and an interview with Alison which sums up the Seventh Tree era. It’s faster than the original and starts backwards! (This one contains cussin’ so it’s rated PG)
Here’s some footage of Goldfrapp live in Manchester on the Head First Tour. The soundtrack was unusable, so I edited in a little remix of Beautiful, which should be their live standard. But isn’t.
The original version of Goldfrapp’s Winter Wonderland sounded unfinished. I finished it with a choir, bells and big drums. Tinkerbell meets Slade. I also added extra whistling and a quote from It’s a Wonderful Life at the end. I think it’s Animal from The Muppets on drums…
Clowns is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard. Here’s my attempt at a music video, mixing tv performances from Seventh Tree with The Banana Splits, a children’s tv show from the 70s. I can explain. Clowns took me back to the Flake adverts of the 70s and my childhood. The Banana Splits are part of that nostalgia, and chime with Alison dressing up in a bunny costume during the playful Seventh Tree era. I opted for the balloon scene after Alison said the song was about breast implants… I used the instrumental version of Clowns and edited in just one line of the vocal, which I thought was poignant. There are also some vinyl scratches to complete the rose-coloured haze.
It was an accident, finding how well these two songs go together. I was making a compilation tape and as Black Cherry ended, Song to the Siren began. Within minutes I was mixing them together using the most primitive software I could find. Elizabeth Fraser was used sparingly as a backing vocal, allowing space for the vast emptiness of Black Cherry, until they build to a crescendo which compliments the main song. It’s quite hard to take two starkly beautiful songs like this and make them work together without ending up with Ballad Soup.
Many years after The Devious Corporation had faded to a private joke, I started using the name as an umbrella term for my mixing and messing with music and video. After hearing Goldfrapp’s Black Cherry in 2002, I decided to have a go at the new craze for ‘mashups’, where someone like Britney is dragged screaming onto a laptop with the likes of Dead or Alive, or the Doors get spliced with Blondie. The discovery that Song to the Siren by This Mortal Coil was the perfect match for Black Cherry was a happy accident.
Alison Goldfrapp herself has described Black Cherry as ‘personal stuff,’ coming from a ‘bleak place.’ It’s a ballad built on bony despair, child-like and almost catatonic. Ultimately, the understatement is ignited by real emotion, but I felt that a sprinkle of Elizabeth Fraser might add some lush Eastern mystery to soften the stark sentiment. Song to the Siren was written in 1967 (a very good year!) by Tim Buckley and was covered by several artists since his death. The definitive version is a spectral piece by This Mortal Coil, liquid and dark, a deadly warning mistaken for a distress call.
I had a great deal of fun doing this, and it came together surprisingly quickly. It may be the best thing I’ve done. Listen to the two songs dovetail in and out of each other and let me know what you think in the comments box!
The Found Sound Orchestra are a substitute for sunshine. This is my mixtape of their best stuff, produced as part of a competition over on their website to make a one-hour radio show for The Ministry of Sound. It’s the sound of a giddy, drunken night out followed by a blissful chillout afterparty. So turn on, tune in and chill out….
Mixing by Mark, philosophy by Anna Madrigal and expletives from Mother Mucca.
the vibes 